While small presses don't have the capital to make the kinds of huge investments in technology that lead to such headline-grabbing announcements as the widgets developed by HarperCollins and Random House, they know they need to keep up with the evolving publishing landscape. Several indie houses are developing electronic strategies and creating new positions to implement them. Next month, for example, when Sara Bercholz takes on the role of v-p, strategic development, at Shambhala Publications in Boston, one of her mandates will be to create a plan for the formatting and storage of the company's titles for electronic platforms.

“For any publisher, the book is the biggest asset,” said Bercholz's boss, Shambhala president Peter Turner. “I expect in the next three to five years, digital books will be a modest but meaningful part of our sales.” Shambhala plans to build digital files for all its backlist books; printers now require digital files for new titles.

Shambhala is one of the few smaller presses that not only has the resources to create digital assets for future use, but as a long-time client of Random House, it is able to see the big picture. In addition, many of its books are related to the niche areas of Buddhism and Eastern-oriented philosophy, where the company has found that dedicated readers are willing to seek out books As a result the company has a thousand-title backlist. “We don't let books go out of print unless they have photographs that can't be replicated on POD machines,” said Turner, noting that 200 of the company's titles are available through POD.

At Fulcrum in Golden, Colo., publisher Sam Scinta sees no reason why the company shouldn't digitize all of its new titles and recent backlist. This summer he is bringing in a direct sales and special marketing associate to help coordinate Fulcrum's digital rights program, and by mid-July, Scinta anticipates that Fulcrum will participate in Microsoft's Live Book Search. For him, part of the program's appeal is that it will enable him to control, book by book, just how much material readers can search.

As an environmentally conscious publisher, Scinta is especially interested in the possibilities e-books open for academic titles. “This might be a way to do away with hardcover examination copies,” he said, eliminating shipping and printing and paper.” On top of that, for course books shipped to countries like India, South Africa or Australia, it will remove shipping costs and make them more affordable. However, when it comes to trade books, said Scinta, “that's another matter. I'm a purist. Gutenberg is one of the people who got it right the first time”—that is, bound books still rule.

As Scinta sees it, smaller presses are on a precipice, waiting to see where the technology is heading. In the meantime, he and other publishing colleagues, like Lars Reilly, systems manager at Seven Stories Press, are taking baby steps compared with better-heeled houses. “We have to participate somehow, so we have to do it actively, so we have some say,” said Reilly. Seven Stories has almost all of its backlist up on Google Print and will start with 20 titles on Amazon's e-book program, rumored to begin later this summer. In addition, Reilly said that the company is debating selling unencrypted PDFs of some of its books on its own Web site using the honor system. Mary Aarons, director of publicity and marketing for the Quayside Publishing Group, headquartered in Beverly, Mass., is also watching her step when it comes to selling digital rights. “We're just trying to figure it all out and not make any hugely expensive mistakes,” she said.

Since Quayside, which includes Creative Publishing international, Fair Winds Press, Quarry Books and Rockport Publishers, specializes in practical how-tos, Aarons is looking to sell chunks of content online. She envisions a time when shoppers will go to craft stores like Michael's or A.C. Moore and print out portions of Quayside books in the store.

In April, Quayside made its first foray into monetizing its digital content. Its CPi imprint announced that it will partner with database aggregator EBSCO to enable library patrons to view segments of 24 CPi books and more than 10,000 illustrations.

Still, no matter how cautiously a publisher proceeds, there may be bumps ahead. Hanover, N.H.-based Steerforth Press may have made only two or three digital editions of its books, but if last fall's Dear Playboy Advisor by Chip Rowe, which is selling well in paperback, is any indication, it may not have the books people want to read digitally. As Steerforth publisher Chip Fleischer points out, “It remains to be seen what's going to work. Remember the enormous amount of money publishers put into CD-ROMs and e-book readers?”